Then they went to seize the Sampo
And to spy the ciphered cover
In dark Pohjola's stone fortress,
There inside a copper mountain,
Well secured behind nine locks,
And an inner bolt the tenth.
Väinämöinen chanted softly
At the copper mountain's gates,
There before the great stone fortress.
Soon the fortress gates were moving
And the iron hinges bulging.
Then the craftsman Ilmarinen,
As the second man in order,
Buttered the locks and greased the hinges
To prevent the gates from grating
And to stop the hinges creaking.
Loosed the great locks with his fingers,
Pried the bolts up with a mattock;
Now the locks turned over freely,
And the heavy doors swung open.
Then old Väinämöinen said:
"Now, you wayward son of Lempi,
My great friend, go get the Sampo,
Heave the ciphered cover up."
So the wayward Lemminkäinen,
He the handsome man far-minded,
Always ready without urging,
Quick in action without praising,
Went to carry out the Sampo,
Heave the ciphered cover up,
And he said as he was going,
Boasted as he strode along:
"What true manhood may be in me,
Manhood in the old man's son,
Let it now uproot the Sampo,
Let it lift the ciphered cover
With the aid of my right foot,
With a light touch of my boot heel."
Then he tried to move the Sampo,
Tried to move it, tried to turn it,
Tried to hug it in his lap,
Struggled with it on his knees,
But the Sampo would not move
Nor the ciphered cover stir;
It was rooted down so firmly,
Rooted down nine fathoms deep.
There's an ox at Pohjola
Which is stout and strong of body,
Tough of flank and finely muscled
It has horns a fathom long,
One and a half its muzzle thick.
Lemminkäinen took the ox,
Took the great ox from the pasture,
Plow too from the meadow's edge
With it plowed the Sampo's roots up,
Fastenings of the ciphered cover.
Then the Sampo started moving
As the ciphered cover loosened.
First of all old Väinämöinen,
And smith Ilmarinen, second,
Third, the wayward Lemminkäinen,
Carried off the magic Sampo
Out of Pohjola's stone fortress,
From inside the copper mountain
And they bore it to their vessel,
Quickly stowed it in their ship.
When the Sampo was secured,
Safely stowed there in the hull,
They pushed the boat out on the water,
Hundred-planker on the seawaves.
It went plunging in the water,
Sailing straight out on the billows.